Open Source

After the tremendous success of ITEXPO this past week, TMC is on a roll and VoIP 2.0 has definitely started to arrive. Of course I donât think we are 100% there yet but we are at the start. I am just beginning to see the applications that will make companies jump to deploy VoIP not because of cost-savings but because the applications are so compelling.

Yesterday I wrote about Citrix and their new technology that will enable the next generation of VoIP 2.0 applications to be enabled. Of course Citrix is just one company striving to help the world get to VoIP 2.0 â there are countless others.

The industryâs leap from 1.0 to 2.0 is essential as we need to ensure that everyone understands that the power VoIP extends way beyond saving a buck on long-distance.

Calysto Communications and Public Relations is a PR company that has perhaps the most customers in the VoIP space and they have a great team of PR people. Their clients are certainly almost all on the telecom "A" list. Since they attend a lot of shows it is worth listening to what they say when they evaluate one show or another. This is what they had to say about last week's Internet Telephony show in Los Angeles.

TMC is very proud to have launched the world's most authoritative site on IP Communications. IPCommunications.com is the place to check for information on next-generation communications. From development trends to enterprise articles to information on IMS, VoIP, video and SIP... You won't find a better place to go every day to keep up to date on the most exciting IP Communications market.

One of the more amazing aspects of open source software is the open source community. SugarCRM recently announced the 100th extension to its Sugar Suite open source CRM platform as well as a contest for developers with prizes totaling $2,500 in cash and prizes.

Over 2,000 developers have joined SugarForge.org in the last 14 months. This is quite an accomplishment.

In any open source project there is always a handful of developers that do most of the work.

After it became impossible to get them covered, RTI recently filed suit for willful patent infringement against Centrepoint Technologies, Inc. for much less money than Mitel and Alcatel (they certainly are a smaller company).

Mitel Networks was sued for $945 Million; Alcatel was sued for $1.155 Billion; and their default is pending in USDC EDNY. Hello Direct, GN Netcom and GN had been sued by RTI for patent infringement, and they recently settled with RTI; the terms are being kept confidential.

Since that time I have learned the court has vacated the default meaning it is now in the hands of California courts since Alcatel sued Rates Technology Inc. first in California.

I have been hearing more and more rumblings in the VoIP industry regarding Jerry Weinberger of Rates Technology Inc. (RTI). I don't get too many people coming to me about patent issues so when I heard about this company, I decided to delve into this potential story a bit more. What intrigued me is that apparently RTI has no products... They exist to collect revenue from other companies.

I did some research and found that Rates Technologies has sued Nortel, Sharp Electronics and others.

In the last few days TMC has made some amazing announcements regarding our publications. The first bit of news is that our print publications are going digital, meaning they will be available via PDF. Instead of having to wait 2...